Rangers ‘ultimate wildcard’ Cyriel Dessers lauded as Celtic star Kyogo criticised
Cyriel Dessers has got “better and better” for Rangers this season and should have been named in the PFA Team of the Year, according to Mark Atkinson.
The Scotsman editor told BBC Sport Scotland (23 April) that he knew he would be laughed at for making the arguement for the Gers forward to get in over Motherwell’s Theo Bair, alongside star strikers Lawrence Shankland and Bojan Miovski of Hearts and Aberdeen respectively, but praised his mental strength and scoring record this term.
He suggested that the fact the Ibrox man, who has divided opinion this season, should even be in with a shout is because big names such as Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi have “underperformed massively”.
Atkinson said: “I’m going to throw the ultimate wildcard in there, I’m going to hear some laughs here. I wouldn’t have Theo Bair in there. If I was to go for another striker I’d go for Cyriel Dessers.
“His goals are good, I know he misses a lot of chances, but he’s got better and better as the season’s gone on. He’s mentally got a lot stronger and I think his numbers speak for themselves.
“I still think he’s a proficient forward. I’d have [Abdallah] Sima ahead of him if he was fit all the time but he’s not. If you were to compared those two players, Bair and Dessers, Bair had a good second half to the season but in a 4-3-3 with three forwards Dessers would be the next one behind Miovski and Shankland.
“What does that say about the league this season? It probably says guys like Kyogo have underperformed massively.”
Rangers man third-best behind Hearts and Aberdeen stars?
Dessers’ status at Ibrox looks set to be judged on his most recent performance and after he scored both in a crucial 2-0 win over the Jam Tarts to qualify for the Scottish Cup final his merits are in the ascendency.
With 19 goals to his name now this term the 29-year-old certainly deserves his fair share of praise for shouldering the load up front almost single-handedly amid the ongoing injury crisis.
He will still infuriate with his missed chances and when that proves costly, as it did in the damaging defeat to Ross County on 14 April, his deficiencies are then highlighted.
But taken as a whole his first season at Rangers looks set to go down as a qualified success as he has fought through a difficult start to become an increasingly-key man for Philippe Clement.
On the strength of performances like the one he put in at Hampden at the weekend there might be an argument for him being one of the leading forward options in the league this term, but some will still be outraged at the suggestion.
He is level with Bair on 13 league goals this term, two ahead of Kyogo, but has scored more frequently (every 144 minutes) than the Motherwell man (every 169) and his Parkhead counterpart (every 200) [BBC Sport].
But if he can make an important contribution to a late push for two more trophies he will strengthen his claim immeasurably.
In other Rangers news, a “quality kid” at Ibrox will struggle to get another look in for the rest of the campaign.
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